"Whether writing as herself, or through one of the many voices she heard in her head, Previn's sinister riverboat chansons revealed the pain, games, lies and loneliness behind the L.A. free love myth. 1971's Mythical Kings And Iguanas was, perhaps, the peak point of Previn's eerily confessional style containing the searingly honest
Lemon Haired Ladies and
The Lady With The Braid, both of which recount encounters between young men and single older women in chilling detail. Her third album, Reflections In A Mud Puddle was a concept album based upon her life with her father, and contained the astonishing
Doppelganger, a Weillian Sympathy For The Devil in which the world's evils are found to lurk in all of us. "
Singer-Songwriter Dory Previn has died. (
previously on Metafilter).
posted by The Whelk
on Feb 22, 2012 -
13 comments
"
Birdcloud met in Murfreesboro and
immediately didn’t like eachother. At a party in 2009 they had some
whiskeys and became friends and started dicking around on guitar,
writing their first song, a song about going down on your best friend,
now lost to the sands of time. Despite a lukewarm reception at
Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, they have been sitting on eachother’s faces
ever since, showing eachother their bruises and generally doing
whatever they want when it works out that way." Songs on the inside NSFW if you can't tell.
[more inside]
posted by cmoj
on Feb 21, 2012 -
14 comments
This song was recorded at home in the 1970s by German actress Sibylle Baier. Her son collected her recordings and created an album to share with family, and in 2006 the Colour Green was released by label Orange Twin.
[more inside]
posted by KingoftheWhales
on Dec 6, 2011 -
11 comments
"A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique. A singer needs the same -- an aural mirror."
In 1950 and '51, Japan’s first reel-to-reel tape recorders, the "
G-Type"
(for gov't use) and the "
H-1"
(for home use) were released by a company named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. Music student Norio Ohga was unimpressed by the wobbly sound of "
Talking Paper," so he wrote a note complaining to the firm's founders, who hired him. Mr. Ohga never achieved his original dream of becoming a baritone opera singer, but the future President of TTK, (later renamed Sony,) would still make an indelible, global impact on the world of music -- including the development and introduction of the compact disc. Mr. Ohga
died on April 24, 2011.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on May 4, 2011 -
3 comments
Have you heard of
Washington Phillips? He was possessed of a wonderful voice, and delivered his simple but gorgeous gospel tunes in an easy and utterly unprepossessing style. He accompanied himself not on guitar or piano, as might be expected, but rather on a chiming, delicately ethereal zither, lending a curiously timeless air to his recordings from the 1920s. An altogether unique performer, his music is a real treat for the soul:
Take Your Burden To the Lord,
What Are They Doing in Heaven Today,
Denomination Blues,
I Had a Good Father and Mother,
Lift Him Up,
Paul and Silas in Jail,
Mother's Last Word To Her Son and
Train Your Children.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jun 14, 2010 -
23 comments
Sometimes, when you've had your fill of people basking in the golden light of their self-righteous indignation, you just wanna hear a song about somebody telling those holier-than-thou-ers where to get off. Something like, say,
Harper Valley PTA.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Apr 24, 2008 -
39 comments
Queens of
Carnatic singing:
Nithyasree Mahadevan:
1,
2 and
3.
Sudha Ragunathan:
1,
2,
3 and
4. And the legend of the legends,
M.S. Subbulakshmi, in her film appearances from decades past:
1,
2 and
3, and as an elder stateswoman of Carnatic vocal artistry:
1,
2,
3 and
4.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 15, 2008 -
13 comments
Head over to
Cheikha Rimitti's MySpace page and listen to the first tune up on her player (starts when you open the page), called
Saida. Whoa! Is that badass or
what? Well, there's 5 other tunes of hers there for your listening pleasure, covering a wide swath of stylistic territory within the Algerian music tradition she was such an important part of. Yet
another MySpace page pays tribute (with 4 more songs!) to this powerful singer, and you can also learn more about her at the
Cheikha Rimitti website, which is in French, but with links like "Musique" and "Vidéos", you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. There's an informative English-language video
biography of this "Mother of
Raï", not to mention this performance footage (with those fantastic flutes!) of
Saida.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 5, 2008 -
18 comments
This post isn't about the great Belgian guitarist
Philip Catherine - too many guitar posts recently - it isn't about the Belgian singer
Katerine (nothing to say). It is about the French singer Philippe Katerine, who has been changing the way lyrics are written, as well as giving a whole range of new topics to French song. With
Je vous emmerde (F*** you) he explains what's on a loser's mind.
Excuse-moi is about the things a man focuses on during sexual intercourse in order to avoid early ejaculation. The individual struggling with an meaningless society is always present :
Borderline (
warcraft version with English subtitles). His lists and his humor clearly link his work with the texts of Poets like Raymond Queneau, Boris Vian (and Serge Gainsbourg), or the prose of Georges Perec. He can be
Elegiac,
Paradoxical,
Funky,
prosaic, he's always twofold.
posted by nicolin
on Oct 25, 2007 -
13 comments
Lately I've been grooving to Hmong karaoke videos.
Maybe it's the lovely, understated singing style, or those charming young ladies doing backup dance, smiling so beatifically as they do their minimal, bouncy step.
Maybe it's the slinky pentatonic sax riffs, or those percussive, insistent strings plucking away over the hypnotically loping beats.
Maybe it's the hats.
Maybe it's the way some of them incorporate traditional instruments and costumes. Or
maybe it's the sheer unlikeliness of lyrics like "
tuaj nriav tus neeg zoo nraug" or "
yuav mus nrog koj nyob." Everybody,
sing along!
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jun 9, 2007 -
40 comments
I thought I'd seen pretty much every bit of performance footage (whether live or lip-synched) featuring the Beatles, but lately I discovered some clips on YouKnowWhere that I hadn't seen before, and I'd wager there's more than a few folks out in MefiLand who've also missed these: a proto-psychedelic promo clip for
Rain, and another promo clip for
Hey Bulldog, and finally, this rarity, an alternate take of the promo clip for
Hello Goodbye. Just for good measure, here's the more familiar (but still
somewhat obscure)
version.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jun 7, 2007 -
43 comments
Two divas with tall, I mean
tall platinum blond
hair wigs at the height of their fame and vocal prowess sing the songs that made them legends. Ladies and gentlemen, blue-eyed soul queen
Dusty Springfield, and the pride of Nashville,
Tammy Wynette. And honorable mention to another top-heavy musical blond, purveyor of perky pedal-steel perfection
Barbara Mandrell.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jun 5, 2007 -
32 comments
Somewhere along the line you've probably heard Bobbie Gentry's brilliant signature tune,
Ode To Billy Joe, but unlike
previously, now you can see a sad-eyed Bobbie perform it
live, displaying the understated Southern soul delivery that, in addition to the delicious lyrics, lazy tempo and no-drums arrangement, made the tune such a milestone in US pop music history. But there was another side to Bobbie: down-home sex kitten! The gal could work a fire-engine red catsuit.
Check her out! Go Bobbie!
posted by flapjax at midnite
on May 29, 2007 -
22 comments
In April of 1966, there
emerged onto the American pop music scene a singer like no other. Off-pitch and off-tempo, a 59 year-old grandmother would perform rock standards such as
A Hard Days Night and Downtown [link to audio] in a bizarre operatic style. Often considered the worst pop star of all time, she rode the line between farce and reality, as the reputable Capitol Records promoted the so-called "new sound" without cracking a smile. Her name was
Elva Connes Miller, but on stage she was known simply as
Mrs. Miller. Was her recording career one of the cruelest practical jokes ever devised by the record industry?
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Dec 21, 2006 -
25 comments
You can keep your Simon, Randy and Paula, I'll take Barbara Cook any day.
Here is the Broadway legend's two hour master class (it's a REALTIME video from
The New York Public Library) and it'll teach you more about singing, phrasing and music than every moment of American Idol combined. At least watch the first 20 minutes, you'll be amazed.
posted by adrober
on Apr 10, 2006 -
7 comments
Ukulele Ike. We know his quavering, tentative, high tenor voice from his voice work as
Jiminy Cricket, but Cliff Edwards -- aka Ukulele Ike -- was much more than that. Wikipedia offers a brief
introduction to the man, his life, his works, and his lonely death. But, to my tastes, the best introduction to this once hugely popular singer is
the man's own voice (mp3 links).
posted by Astro Zombie
on Feb 24, 2006 -
5 comments
